Here are a few snippets that explore those early bitcoin similarities…
If the Internet brings civilization to the mind in cyberspace, then you have just entered its flea market. This is The InfoHaus, an electronic bazaar of digital dreck, where almost everything costs less than US$10. Inside you'll find a pulsating, mutating collection of unknown and unknowable merchants fulfilling the most disparate needs…
Sounds like Silk Road.
This online trading village is just one corner of the emerging world of electronic cash, but with a very important difference. It's the slice where the only cash that really counts is the coin.
It's a market where buyers trade money they can't grasp [with merchants they can't see].
Yeah, that's bitcoin.
In the real world the lowest denomination is the penny, but out on the Net it could be a thousandth or, in the wildest conception, one ten-millionth of a penny. A nanobuck.
The wildest conception? Bitcoin goes one decimal deeper! 1 Nanobuck = 1 Satoshi.
Here's the tricky part: the cost of performing a transaction must be lower than the value of the transaction. When it comes to juggling hundredths of a cent, efficient use of communications channels and computing power will be key. Simply put, computers make nanotransactions possible.
Yes, computers DO make bitcoin possible. Who would've thought it? The folks at Wired, that’s who!
To get down to true nanobuck territory, the number of processing cycles between computers, the slices of communications bandwidth needed between points, and the maintenance of all this digital chitchat must be cut to thousandths, millionths, or someday billionths of a cent. Yet the would-be barons of digital microeconomics believe that there is a huge untapped market for cash transactions on the Net. What is missing is the technology that would unleash it.
We have that technology now. It’s called bitcoin.
Cryptologist David Chaum's DigiCash turns a user's hard drive into a purse.
Purse. Wallet. Whatever.
To obtain this digital cash, called ecash, you create a series of numbers that will represent a mixture of coins.
I'd earlier obtained a user name and password from DigiCash. But this only gets me close to getting started. I have to create a string of at least 25 random characters to move onto the next step, which is to create yet another password, unrelated to the first one, so I can create my own private encryption key.
Long strings of random-looking numbers? Check. Private keys? Check. LOL
Using DigiCash, a meter icon onscreen keeps track of how much cash is still stored on the hard disk. But storing numbers on the hard disk is risky. If you have a disk crash - or if your computer is stolen - you've lost your money. Just like losing your wallet. Result: users are likely to acquire encoded electronic cash only shortly before they intend to spend it and acquire only as much as they think they'll really need.
This is every bitcoin wallet.
Transactions are anonymous, unless the seller specifically asks for the identity of the buyer.
Kind of like Monero too?
In a given week, David Bianco, a senior member of the technical staff at iTRiBE Inc., has about 140 visitors to his Digital Cash Shop, which accepts only DigiCash's ecash. But only about five people a week look at the order link for his lone product, a piece of Star Trek/Dr. Who-genre science fiction called Cyborged. Of those, he may get a single order, since he restricts purchases to ecash [only]. "Most people don't actually have digital cash,'' he acknowledges.
^^^ That’s my older brother — the true cryptocurrency OG! No credit cards. No fiat. He accepted cryptocurrency ONLY. (You’re my crypto-hero, David!)DigiCash, on the other hand, stands outside the existing banking networks and offers complete anonymity.
Again…like bitcoin or Monero.
Electronic coins could be another technology…
And the article even reviews some of the new digital cash systems! (Most are merely debit card systems, but these two are the crypto-coolest!
[DIGICASH] Hard drive as coin purse...The serial numbers of the coins are maintained, so the merchant and bank can keep records of which coins are spent.
Projected cost: One-tenth of a cent per transaction.
Smallest appropriate purchase: 1 cent.
Upside: Anonymity; strong cryptography.
Downside: Anonymity (could allow money laundering); cost of strong crypto could be underestimated.
They mentioned money laundering. This is TOO bitcoin. LOL
[MILLICENT] Two-step process using fake money akin to Geoffrey Bucks at Toys 'R' Us. Merchant creates own electronic currency, or "scrip," that is sold to brokers. Brokers then sell the scrip to buyers. Sellers deal with just a handful of accounts, spreading transaction costs over a large volume of purchases. Millicent customers need to buy currency from only a few trusted brokers, not every vendor. Anyone can see the request and scrip as it is sent, but cracking the signature on the package is kept more costly than the scrip inside is worth.
Projected cost: One-tenth of a cent per transaction.
Smallest appropriate purchase: 1 cent.
Upside: Inexpensive; efficient.
Downside: Merchants can run off with money; lacks privacy, auditability.
“Downside: Merchants can run off with money?” And there we see a future glimpse at greedy altcoin ICO skammers!
